Boarding
by mischieftobemanaged
Summary: In a world where Voldemort never existed and the Potter family was never torn apart, James and Lily prepare to send Harry off on the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.   AU. One Shot. Lily's POV.


_**A/N: Just some fun fluff that I came up with today. I tossed it around from various points of view before finally deciding on Lily. Hope you enjoy!**_

_Boarding_

**10:30**

"Harry, are you sure you can handle that dear?" I asked nervously as I watched my oldest son swerve the trolley clumsily towards the barrier. "Perhaps your father…"

"Mum, I'm fine," He grumbled as he made yet another sharp jerk, nearly hitting a Muggle man who was darting along the platform.

"Lily, relax," James sauntered up behind me, wrapping his strong arms around my waist. I looked up at him. His hazel eyes were full of laughter behind his dark square glasses. I often wondered how I could stand being with a man whose only reaction to my stress was amusement, but gazing into his eyes, I knew. He didn't need to tell me to relax; my muscles lost their tension immediately.

"Well, he keeps running into Muggles, surely someone is going to wonder—" I mumbled, irritated.

"He's _fine_, Lily," James chuckled. "He's nice and strong from Quidditch, like his father." James' chest puffed up. I rolled my eyes, but laughed anyway.

"Daddy," A small voice behind us caught my attention. James turned to see Catherine, our seven-year-old redheaded daughter, staring up at us with sad eyes just like his. Without missing a beat, James scooped her up in his arms.

"Yes, darling," He said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Why can't I go with Harry?" She asked. I sighed. She had been asking the same question for weeks now, ever since Harry's letter came on his birthday.

"Because," James replied, as though he had not had to answer her practically every hour since. "You aren't old enough yet. When you turn eleven, you'll get a letter just like Harry, and we'll all take you to Diagon Alley and you can get a wand, and an owl, and anything else you would like."

Catherine pouted. I smiled.

**10:35**

We approached where Harry had stopped at the familiar barrier between Platforms 9 and 10.

"Is this it?" He turned to me. I saw uncertainty flash in his eyes for the first time all morning.

I nodded. Harry only stared at the barrier blankly. James stepped up beside him and put Catherine down.

"Together?" James murmured quietly in Harry's ear. Our son nodded. Catherine and I stepped aside to let James and Harry back up with his trolley. In an instant, they had rushed at the barrier and were gone.

Catherine tugged at my hand. "Oh, Mum, can we go too?" She exclaimed excitedly.

"Yes," I said quietly, so as not to draw attention to her excitement.

Catherine and I met James and Harry through the barrier moments later.

**10:38**

"C'mon, Harry, let's get your things loaded on the train." James took control of the trolley and started to head towards the steaming, scarlet Hogwarts Express. "Lily, keep an eye out for them. They said they'd be here at quarter of."

I nodded. I kept a firm grasp on Catherine's small hand as the girl bounced around beside me. I watched the train up ahead. You could barely see it through the hoards of students and parents bustling around. My eyes scanned the cars. I located the window of the compartment I sat in during all seven journeys to Hogwarts and smiled reminiscently.

My eyes floated to the front of the train, where Harry and James were loading his trunk onto the luggage compartment. Harry's face was smug as he lifted it onto the cart by himself. James was grinning proudly, disguising well the fact that he was lifting it from the other side.

I forced my eyes away from them. I felt my heart grow heavy for what seemed like the tenth time just this morning. It was just hard to come to terms that our first-born was not only going away to our school, but also leaving us behind.

**10:45**

"Mum! Mum, I see them!" Harry called out. His green eyes shined bright with excitement. I followed his gaze to see a sturdy, dark haired man hand in hand with a tiny pregnant blonde woman. Practically sprinting to keep up with them was a small blonde girl about Catherine's age, their daughter.

James turned and grinned crookedly at the sight of his best friend and Harry's godfather, Sirius Black.

"Sirius," James greeted him warmly, thumping his mate on the back. He acknowledged the woman beside him, my best friend and Sirius' wife, Marlene.

"Marlene," He nodded. "How are you both?"

"Alright," Sirius said, quite chipper. "Remus couldn't make it, what with last night and all." He winked at James.

"Yes, neither of us slept a wink last night, between the moon and the pregnancy," Marlene said, much more exhausted than her husband. She turned to me. "It's a boy."

"Oh!" I was taken aback. "Do you know already?"

"They haven't told us," she replied. "But I can tell. I can't sleep at night at all from the kicking."

I laughed, fondly remembering similar nights when I was pregnant with Harry. I watched my now eleven-year-old boy being teased by Sirius and James. My throat tightened a bit, looking at him all grown up right now. He resembled James so much, physically and in attitude. Both of them had unruly dark hair and glasses paired with a thin, but muscular structure. But behind the glasses were my eyes, practically the only evidence that he was my son at all.

Still, he had a charming way about him. I couldn't tell where he'd pick that up. At times, he was just like James, grinning just a tad crookedly whenever he needed to win someone over. But then, all of the sudden, he would become a sweet little boy, reminding me so much of when he was younger. I wish I could go back to then.

**10:50**

The train whistle blew and more steam exuded from the engine. It startled my maternal instincts back to life.

"Oh, ten minutes!" I exclaimed. "We had better get a move on if you want to find a compartment. Oh goodness, but you don't want to sit alone…" I scanned the busy platform to see if I knew anyone who could keep company with my boy.

"Mum!" Harry groaned. "It's fine, I've already spoken to Ron and Neville. They'll sit with me."

"Oh, of course," I stuttered. The Weasleys and Longbottoms, old Wizarding family friends that James had met somehow someway through his father, both had sons Harry's age.

"Are your things already loaded?" Sirius asked Harry, coming up behind him. Harry nodded.

"Well, let's get moving." James said. "Catherine! Caroline!" He called to the two girls chatting next to Marlene.

The seven of us set off down the platform. My stomach flipped. This was happening.

**10:55**

"Fred, George, look after your brother!" Molly Weasley's shrill voice reprimanded her twin sons as they boarded the train.

"Relax, Mum," one of them said.

"Ron's safe with us." The other one smiled cheekily. I was very reminded of the two men standing next to me.

Sirius and James were both crouched down, having what appeared to be a very secret talk with Harry. I didn't intrude, but when they stood and Harry ran over to Ron, the youngest Weasley boy, I confronted James.

"What was that about?" I asked harshly. I knew quite well what they had been doing.

"Just pep talking," James said casually, running his hand through his hair like he always did when he was nervous.

"Oh, really," I said, my voice full of sarcasm. "I didn't know that pep talks consisted of passing along invisibility cloaks and enchanted maps of the school."

"Shh!" James put a finger over my lips. I eyed him doubtfully. "Well, do you want the whole school to know his secrets?" James hissed. I snickered, but did not fight with him. Of course, if James' Potter's son were going to Hogwarts, he would have keep up his father's master prankster reputation.

**10:57**

The train whistle blew once more. I wrapped my arms around my son yet again and kissed the top of his head. Unlike the other times, Harry did not fight and groan from embarrassment. I was surprised to feel him embrace me back.

"I love you," I murmured.

"I love you too, Mum," My boy said, squeezing his arms around me. I was reminded of all the times he had done so when he was younger; every time he was bruised, cut, sad, or scared. It didn't take a genius to realize that my confident eleven-year-old was nervous.

I released him a bit and looked down into his eyes. "You'll be fine," I whispered.

"I know," He said shakily. "But Mum… I'll be in Gryffindor right? And I'll make the Quidditch team? And the teachers, they'll like me? And—"

"Harry," I stopped him. "Yes."

Just then, James appeared behind me again. He wrapped one arm around my waist and one around Harry's shoulders.

"Good luck, son," He squeezed Harry's shoulders. "And if you're nervous, just remember: You are the son of the Great James Potter."

Harry and I both laughed. Sending Harry off to school seemed to have reawakened the cocky Quidditch star of our youth. Part of me hoped that some of that overconfidence rubbed off on Harry.

**11:00**

The scarlet Hogwarts Express chugged ahead right on time, whistle blaring and smoke spewing from the engine. Parents and siblings gathered at the edge of the platform to wave to their respective students until the last second possible. It seemed like just yesterday, I was on the other side, hanging out the window with Severus or my fellow Gryffindor girls, yelling good-bye to my mum, dad and Tuney over the roaring train. Now I stood on the Platform, one hand wrapped around James' waist and the other simultaneously trying to keep a hold on a jumping Catherine and wave to the tiny bespectacled boy hanging out the window of my old compartment as he grew smaller in the distance.

I hadn't even realized that I was crying until James squeezed my side.

"He'll be okay," He murmured in my ear.

"I know," I said quietly. "It's me I'm worried about. I don't like our family being apart."

"We're only apart in that he's far away," James said. "But he'll write us, we'll write him. He'll be home for Christmas, and then for Easter, and then again next summer. We're a family, no matter what."

"No matter what," I repeated. "No matter what."


End file.
